Gatekeeping and our moral fabric: Has social capital deterioration vanquished professional oversight?

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-386
Author(s):  
Leonard Bierman ◽  
Rhett A Brymer ◽  
Scott B Dust ◽  
Hyunseok Hwang
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Robert Putnam ◽  
Sarbanes Oxley ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Considerable Impact ◽  
Multiple Agency

Abstract Social capital deterioration in the USA, and indeed throughout the world, has had considerable impact on professional service firms (PSFs). Governmental entities at various levels have enacted new laws and regulations (e.g. the Sarbanes Oxley and Dodd-Frank Acts in the USA) to help ameliorate this situation, but to relatively little avail. Traditional gatekeeping functions of PSFs seem to be deteriorating. Is there hope for the future? This article addresses that issue in the context of work by drawing on the insight and research of Robert Putnam and John Coffee and encouraging advancement of multiple agency theory and governance for today’s world.

The Role of Social Media in Knowledge Management

2017 ◽  
pp. 230-248
Author(s):  
Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah ◽  
Shehla Amjad
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
The World ◽  
Knowledge Intensive

The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the importance of social media and theoretically link it with Knowledge Management (KM). A massive increase in social media usage around the world and its enhanced role in everyday life of employees offer enormous opportunities to businesses. One of the most important challenges that management faces in today's dynamic business environment is knowledge management. This becomes the key concern in professional service firms that are knowledge intensive in nature. The chapter discusses the association between social media and knowledge management. A theoretical model (SECI-SM) proposed by Shah, Khan, and Amjad (2013) is presented and discussed which is an extension of the seminal work of Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995). The model puts social media at the heart of knowledge management system and processes. It purports social media as an ideal vehicle for knowledge sharing and retaining. The chapter discusses the superiority of SECI-SM Model and lays out some useful suggestions for businesses.

Strategic Human Resource Management and Performance Management in Professional Service Firms

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juani Swart ◽  
Nina Katrin Hansen ◽  
Nicholas Kinnie
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Performance Management ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Hrm Practices ◽  
Human And Social Capital

This chapter draws on previous research to consider how HRM practices are used to manage human and social capital to generate superior performance in professional service firms. Previous research indicates that PSFs rely on both human capital (knowledge and skills) and social capital (relationships inside and outside the PSF) to manage their performance outputs. In this context the authors review the existing research on strategic HRM practices in PSFs which is predominantly categorized into expertise- and efficiency-orientated HRM systems. They draw on their own research to outline two models of HRM practices which are used to manage human and social capital and discuss the link to innovation. The first of these emphasizes the protection of human capital and therefore has centripetal properties, whereas the second is more client-focused and therefore displays centrifugal properties. Finally, they consider the managerial challenges that these models present and point to avenues for future research.

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FIRMS: EFFECTS OF HUMAN CAPITAL AND SOCIAL CAPITAL.

2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (1) ◽  
pp. B1-B6 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL A. HITT ◽  
LEONARD BIERMAN ◽  
KLAUS UHLENBRUCK ◽  
KATSUHIKO SHIMIZU
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms

Impediments for Knowledge Sharing in Professional Service Firms

2011 ◽  
pp. 1845-1850
Author(s):  
Georg Disterer
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Professional Advice ◽  
Innovative Solutions ◽  
The World ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Valuable Thing ◽  
Holding Back

Professional service firms (PSFs), where professionals (consultants, lawyers, accountants, tax advisors, etc.) work, are interested in knowledge management because their businesses are heavily dependent on the knowledge of their employees. A core asset is their ability to solve complex problems through creative and innovative solutions, and the basis for this is their employees’ knowledge. The “product” that PSFs offer their clients is knowledge (Kay, 2002; Ofek & Sarvary, 2001; Chait, 1999). Sharing knowledge between colleagues improves the economical benefits a firm can realize from the knowledge of employees. This is especially true for PSFs (Huang, 1998; Quinn, Anderson, & Finkelstein, 1996), where broad ranges of knowledge must be kept to provide intellectual services, and real-life experiences with certain questions and situations are an important asset. The organizations and its members are spread over various offices across the country or the world. The necessity for sharing grows because the network of professionals in most cases can offer significantly better professional advice than any individual. “We sell knowledge… the most valuable thing we can offer is the collective, institutional knowledge of our firm” (Roger Siboni, KPMG executive, in Alavi, 1997, p. 1). Working together openly without holding back or protecting vital pieces of knowledge will result in more productivity and innovation than could be reached individually.

Professionalization through symbolic and social capital: Evidence from the careers of elite consultants

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Kipping ◽  
Felix Bühlmann ◽  
Thomas David
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Alternative Pathway ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Dominant Firms ◽  
Professional Field ◽  
Professional Fields ◽  
The 19Th Century

Abstract This article contributes to the debate about how more recent professions, especially those related to management, might achieve a semblance of ‘professionalism’ in the absence of the conditions that facilitated the creation of the traditional professions such as medicine, law or accounting in the 19th century. Much of the recent literature has either argued that these professions had to rely on some form of ‘image professionalism’ or that the professionalization process was ‘captured’ by the dominant firms within the professional field, with the aim of creating corporate, firm-internal rather than open labor markets for these professionals. Building on Bourdieu’s notions of symbolic and social capital, we suggest an alternative pathway to professionalization in stratified professional fields. We namely argue that a career at one of the ‘elite’ professional service firms (PSFs) can provide privileged access to positions at other firms within the same field. Hence, such a career constitutes a form of closure regime and allows, at least to some degree, the external labor mobility so typical of traditional professions. We explore this alternative pathway to professionalization by analyzing a novel and unique historical data set of former McKinsey consultants, identifying a number of boundary conditions that seem to facilitate such intraprofessional careers and others, which, over time, might weaken it. We conclude by pointing to a number of broader contributions from our research.

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